“The fact that we accomplished the occultation observations from every planned observing site but didn’t detect the object itself likely means that either MU69 is highly reflective and smaller than some expected, or it may be a binary or even a swarm of smaller bodies left from the time when the planets in our Solar System formed.”

An image of Pluto captured in high-resolution by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on 14 July 2015. The spacecraft studied the dwarf planet before beginning its journey towards MU69.

Credit: NASA/JHUAP/SwRI

Further occultations will occur on 10 and 17 July, and teams are set up to use these to check for debris around MU69 that could be hazardous for New Horizons.

The event on 17 July will also be used to better determine the size of MU69 with scientists setting up a ground based 'fence line' of small mobile telescopes along the line of the shadow.

NASA launched New Horizons on 19 January 2006 in a mission to explore the farthest reaches of our Solar System.

In 2015, it carried out a six-month flyby of Pluto, producing the closest images of the dwarf planet ever achieved and new data about its structure.

Its extended mission now continues farther into the Kuiper Belt to explore other KBOs.

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